Climate Change Adaptation Mainstreaming at the Sub- National Level Development Planning: A Case of the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA), Ghana

Climate change has been recognised as a key development issue in sub-Saharan Africa. This might be explained by the region’s peculiar vulnerabilities that could be related to climate change. Climate change is expected to significantly affect food security, increase flooding and droughts in specific areas of the sub-region, affect the production of major export cash crops in Africa and affect the economies and livelihoods with the resultant negative impact on poverty reduction. One major way to offset or reduce the impact of climate change is climate change adaptation mainstreaming in the development planning process. This will acknowledge the expected development challenges posed by climate change and to fashion out strategies to deal with the impacts of climate change. This paper assesses climate change adaptation mainstreaming measures in the development planning process of the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) in Ghana. The research focuses on two Medium-Term Development Plans (MTDP) of the Metropolitan Assembly. The objective is to assess the climate change resilient readiness and adaptation at the sub-national level and to draw local policy makers’ attention of the consequences of ignoring climate change realities. Keywords: Ghana, Climate Change, Adaptation, Local Level Development Planning, Resilience, ainstreamin

Behavioural Dimension of the Growth of Informal Settlements in Kumasi city, Ghana

Informal settlements are among the major problems that confronts many cities in the world. Despite numerousefforts both at the international and local levels to address this problem, its existence keeps on rising. This paperused a theoretical approach to assess the growth of informal settlements in Kumasi, Ghana. It adapted the theoryof Planned Behaviour with informal settlement dwellers been the target population. A total of 238 informalsettlement dwellers were covered with questionnaires serving as the research instruments. It was found out thatinformal settlement dwellers have bad behaviour towards such settlements and this was underpinned by their badintentions about informal settlements. Low awareness of building regulations and poor perception of land useplanning were the issues that influenced their behaviour through their intensions. The major contribution of thispaper is that the growth of informal settlements is to a greater extent orchestrated by bad behaviour towards suchsettlements and that policy makers and international bodies should have a second thought on these settlementsand pay keen attention to human behaviours towards informal settlements.Keywords: urban; housing; informal settlements; behaviour; Kumasi, Ghan

Cashew cultivation, access to land and food security in Brong-Ahafo Region, Ghana: Preventing the intergenerational transmission of poverty

This research aimed to investigate the implications of changing agricultural land use from food production towards increased cashew cultivation for food security and poverty alleviation in Jaman North District, Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana. Based on qualitative, participatory research with a total of 60 participants, the research found that increased cashew production had led to improvements in living standards for many farmers and their children over recent years. Global demand for cashew is projected to continue to grow rapidly in the immediate future and cashew-growing areas of Ghana are well placed to respond to this demand. Cashew farmers however were subject to price fluctuations in the value of Raw Cashew Nuts (RCN) due to unequal power relations with intermediaries and export buyer companies and global markets, in addition to other vulnerabilities that constrained the quality and quantity of cashew and food crops they could produce. The expansion of cashew plantations was leading to pressure on the remaining family lands available for food crop production, which community members feared could potentially compromise the food security of rural communities and the land inheritance of future generations

Struggles over family land? Tree crops, land and labour in Ghana's Brong-Ahafo region

Agricultural land use in much of Brong-Ahafo region, Ghana has been shifting from the production of food crops towards increased cashew nut cultivation in recent years. This article explores everyday, less visible, gendered and generational struggles over family farms in West Africa, based on qualitative, participatory research in a rural community that is becoming increasingly integrated into the global capitalist system. As a tree crop, cashew was regarded as an individual man's property to be passed on to his wife and children rather than to extended family members, which differed from the communal land tenure arrangements governing food crop cultivation. The tendency for land, cash crops and income to be controlled by men, despite women's and young people's significant labour contributions to family farms, and for women to rely on food crop production for their main source of income and for household food security, means that women and girls are more likely to lose out when cashew plantations are expanded to the detriment of land for food crops. Intergenerational tensions emerged when young people felt that their parents and elders were neglecting their views and concerns. The research provides important insights into gendered and generational power relations regarding land access, property rights and intra-household decision-making processes. Greater dialogue between genders and generations may help to tackle unequal power relations and lead to shared decision-making processes that build the resilience of rural communities

Social Cash Transfers: Some Underlying Debates and Implications for Policy Making

Social cash transfers as a strategy for poverty reduction acquired prominence in Latin America but spread later to the rest of the developing world because earlier poverty reduction strategies did not make many gains. Most studies on cash transfer schemes seem tilted towards evaluating their impacts while neglecting the arguments surrounding their design and operations. As such, this paper reviews some of the debates that engulf social cash transfers as a form of social assistance. The review showed that debates about social cash transfers generally centre on targeting, affordability, conditionalities, poverty reduction ability, utilisation of cash, market effect, cash versus food stamp, and dependency. It is concluded that the debates are crucial as they lay the pedestal upon which policy makers take the decision as to whether to set up, change or end an existing cash transfer programme.Keywords: Social, Cash, Transfer, Debate, Poverty, Conditiona

Towards sustainability: Overcoming the physical barriers to urban green spaces in Kumasi, Ghana

Conserving green spaces (parks, gardens, forest) in the physical landscape of cities is an action that has been identified as contributing to the sustainability of cities. However, to be able to conserve such spaces, some barriers need to be overcome, and this has not received much attention. This paper therefore provides measures to overcome the ‘physical’ barriers to urban green spaces in order to enhance the sustainability of such spaces in Ghana, using Kumasi as a case study. A qualitative research approach, 30 in-depth interviews, ten focus group discussions, archival data, and numerous observation sessions were utilized in the study. Kumasi city authorities, allied bodies on green spaces, opinion leaders, and residents of Kumasi constituted the study’s target population. It was discovered that conflicting ownership rights, encroachment, and poor maintenance are major physical barriers hampering the development of urban green spaces. To enhance the sustainability of urban green spaces, the study recommends that there should be the creation of additional parks and gardens, conversion of brownfield sites into green spaces, incorporation of quantitative standards into the provision of green spaces, and institutionalization of an award scheme on green spaces

Now I Know the Law : Empowerment of Mining Communities by an Environmental Non-Government Organisation (ENGO)

Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) became very prominent after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 as vibrant social movements. Since then, ENGOs operat-ing at the local, regional, or global levels have been instrumental in environmental man-agement in both developed and developing countries. This study sought to investigate the performance of the Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM), a local ENGO, in some selected mining communities in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipali-ty, in the Western Region of Ghana. Situated in the intepretivist research philosophy, the study employed in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and observations to collect data from some staff of WACAM, community residents and some government agencies. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to select 77 respondents for the study. Data collected was transcribed and manually coded into themes and categories for analyses. From the perspective of the respondents and participants, the study found that WACAM performed well in mitigating the environmental ills caused to the mining com-munities. WACAM employed the use of advocacy and capacity building as the means to empower poor and vulnerable groups of people and also to influence public decision making and implementation, to challenge the status quo of social injustices, and to defend their human rights. It is recommended that local and/or international donor agencies should sponsor the activities of such ENGOs. Moreover, there should be healthy collabo-ration between WACAM, government agencies, especially the Environmental Protection Agency, and local community residents to sustainably manage the exploitation of natural resources

Residents’ perceptions on the manifestation of the natural resource curse in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality, Ghana: Residents’ perceptions on the manifestation of the natural resource curse in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality, Ghana

Natural resources have often been found to be a curse to some nations that possess them instead of being a blessing. In several developing economies, civil wars, environmental and health hazards have been associated with the extraction of such natural resources. This paper investigated residents' perceptions on the effects resultingfrom natural resource extraction in some mining communities in Ghana. Underpinned by the interpretivist philosophy, this case study employed in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation to collect data from the residents in Odumase and Teberebie communities in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality, in the Western Region of Ghana. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to select 77 respondents for the study. Data collected was transcribed, coded into themes and categories, and manually analysed. The study found that the'mining communities were confronted with a number of environmental challenges, including pollution (air, water, soil, and noise), deforestation, abandoned mine pits and dumping of rock waste on fertile agricultural lands. Residents have become marginalized as a result of the difficulty to access potable drinking water, fertile agricultural lands and inability to come out of poverty since their livelihoods have become unsustainable. It is recommended that collaborative efforts should be adopted by various stakeholders to sustainably manage the exploitation of mineral resources. Central and local governments' policies and regulations regarding natural resource use, and n particular mining need to be enforced with local residents in mind